


Frippery

by miera



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-05
Updated: 2010-08-05
Packaged: 2017-10-10 23:17:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/105496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During an extremely boring week, Trip finds a little project to keep himself busy. (02/04/2003)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frippery

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure this was not only my first piece of m/m slash, but possibly the first fanfic I ever wrote and posted anywhere.

His fingers drummed on the desk in random patterns. His normally ramrod straight posture was bent nearly in half as he leaned his elbow on the desk. His eyes traveled along the lines of text without really taking in anything he was reading.

Giving up, Malcolm Reed tossed the data pad aside in disgust. He muttered to no one in particular, "Dear God, I'm bored."

He stared around his quarters in frustration. The ship was headed for a new sector which long range scans suggested would be full of interesting possibilities. However, to reach that sector, they were passing through one of the universe's many empty neighborhoods. Their scans had found nothing of interest for over a week.

Ennui was sweeping the crew. Malcolm's back was sore from the previous night's sparring session with the rest of the security team. They had extended the session to twice the normal length because everyone seemed at a loss for anything alse to do. Some of the frustration in the others had given their roundhouses a little too much force.

He was reading the latest reports simply because he had done everything else. All his duty logs were up to date. The weapons had been checked so many times as to render the exercise futile. He'd even cleaned his already immaculate quarters in a fit of desperation.

The bare walls of his living space were starting to close in. He had to get out.

*~*~*~*~*

Tucker was sitting at a table in the Mess with Hoshi and Travis. The three of them were attempting to stave off the mind-numbing boredom that had taken hold of the ship by discussing movies. The screening the previous night had been of a classic adventure movie called "El Dorado."

"You're completely missing the point. The real hero of the story is Alicia," Hoshi told Travis.

"How can you say that? Monk is the one who saves her from the snake, and then from the mummies."

"Yeah but in the end she saves his life instead of him falling to his death in the snake pit!"

Trip smiled. It could have been over the conversation, or from the fact that Malcolm walked into the Mess at that precise moment. He waved the armory officer over to join them.

Malcolm sat down gratefully, cradling a cup of hot tea in his hand. Hoshi and Travis barely paused in their argument to nod to him. He listened to their bantering without being prevailed upon to offer an opinion, a smile lurking in the corners of his mouth.

Tucker belatedly realized he was staring and he leaned forward. "You don't usually seek out company in the mess hall, Lieutenant."

Reed looked up, slightly surprised. His face colored a bit but he shrugged. "I felt a strong desire to be someplace other than alone in my quarters."

Trip nodded. "There's a lot of that going around." He took another sip of his hot chocolate, musing, "Of course, given how bare your walls are, it's amazing you ever want to be in your quarters at all."

Malcolm bristled, enough to attract the attention of the others. "My quarters may seem a bit austere, Commander, but I prefer not to be distracted by..." he searched briefly for a word, "frippery."

Trip very nearly snorted chocolate out of his nose from laughing. "Frippery? What the hell does that mean?"

"Something frivolous. Something flashy and showy," Hoshi chimed in, grinning at Malcolm.

Travis nodded. "In other words, the antithesis of a certain armory officer we all know."

Malcolm began to regret seeking comfort in his crewmates. He glared, taking another sip of his tea. "Shag you all."

Trip shifted in his seat. Reed had looked at him last, and behind his mock-anger there was a slight challenge in his eyes. There was nothing the engineer would have liked better, but he didn't want to give Reed the satisfaction of knowing that yet.

"That would kill some time at least," Trip observed. There was a moment of stunned silence and then Hoshi and Travis both burst out laughing. Malcolm's lips twitched into a wry grin as he looked at Tucker, who had raised his eyebrows mockingly at the armory officer.

Malcolm decided to beat Trip at his own game. He looked around the table. "Well, that might be logistically difficult with a group of this size..."

Hoshi became lost in a fit of giggles and Travis had to grab her arm before she fell off her seat. Trip kept his cool, however and fired back. "Well I am an engineer, I'm sure I could figure something out."

"And God knows we need something to do," Malcolm added, rolling his eyes.

Trip froze for a moment as an idea suddenly entered his head. He thought hard for a minute and decided with typical quickness that there was no time like the present to get working. He stood up, causing Malcolm to start slightly. "Well, I'm afraid you'll have to continue to entertain yourselves without me for a while. I'm on duty soon."

He headed off, avoiding Malcolm's eyes. He knew Malcolm was probably wondering about the implied invitation and his refusing it. 'Don't worry, sweetheart,' he thought at Malcolm. 'I definitely haven't forgotten about you.'

*~*~*~*~*

The next morning, Hoshi walked into Engineering, datapadd in hand. She spotted Tucker sitting at his desk and walked over, a curious look on her face.

"Hey, Hoshi. You got my message?"

"Yes, I did. Do you think you could translate it into English?" Tucker began to blush. "Because this is complete gibberish. 'Help with the frequency modulation on the subspace beacons'? I don't even know what that means."

"Yeah, well..." he coughed, embarrassed. "See, I needed to talk to you about something and I didn't want to do it on the Bridge."

Her curiosity now completely piqued, Hoshi leaned over the desk. There was something in his guilty look that made her suspicious. "What are you up to?"

"It's nothing bad," he protested quickly. "I just have a little project I'm working on that I don't want people to find out about. And I could use your help."

"Uh huh. Well, whatever it is, I'm in." He watched, grinning, as Hoshi sat down across the desk from him.

*~*~*~*~*

The whole day had been a bit odd for Malcolm. About mid-morning, he began to get the feeling something was going on. At first he assumed some new piece of gossip was making the ship's rounds. But after eating lunch with both Hoshi and Travis and neither of them volunteering any information, his suspicions began to worsen.

It didn't help that every so often, he got the distinct impression he was being watched. Travis in particular seemed to constantly be looking in his direction and trying not to laugh.

Malcolm spent the afternoon telling himself he was allowing his proper concern for security to slip over the line into paranoia. After his shift ended, he went to the gym and worked out, fully expecting to run into Trip there. When the engineer didn't turn up, though, it occurred to Malcolm that he hadn't seen Tucker since the day before yesterday. It certainly wasn't the first time they had not spent the night together, and Trip wasn't obligated to keep Malcolm apprised of his whereabouts at all times. Still, combined with the strange goings on of the morning, he began to get distinctly uncomfortable.

After spending a good ten minutes absently staring into nothing while showering, racking his brain to come up with an answer to the mystery, he shook himself. 'Knock if off Lieutenant,' he told himself firmly. 'You're creating dangers out of thin air because you're bored.'

He toweled off and was preparing to go to the Mess for dinner when the comm chimed. "Archer to Lieutenant Reed."

"Yes sir?"

"Malcolm, I was wondering if you'd like to join us for dinner? We've got an extra spot at the table tonight," Archer's voice came through the comm.

Malcolm couldn't stop the sinking feeling in his stomach. He maintained his composure enough to answer, "I'd be delighted sir," and shut off the comm after hearing Archer blithely expect his arrival in a few minutes.

What in hell was going on?

*~*~*~*~*

Approximately 60 seconds after Malcolm had left his quarters to go to dinner with the Captain, Trip slipped around the corner of the hallway and keyed the entry code into Malcolm's door. He looked both ways and then waved to Travis and Hoshi to follow him inside.

*~*~*~*~*

Even though the usual fare in the mess hall was far above general standards in Starfleet, the Captain's table was always a few notches better. The salmon was cooked perfectly and Malcolm almost forgot his nervousness enjoying the fresh bread served with dinner.

He was alone with the Captain and T'Pol. Archer had carelessly mentioned Trip was involved in some Engineering project and decided not to join them that night, leaving his place at the table free. Malcolm felt a small measure of relief. Trip wasn't quite as devoted to his work as Malcolm was, but he was just as capable of getting lost tinkering with his machines. It explained where he'd been the past few days.

Meanwhile, Malcolm did his best to be calm, discussing famous naval battles from Earth's history with the Captain. T'Pol ate in virtual silence, every so often interjecting a comment that bordered on sarcastic. He spent the first half of the meal expecting the Captain to turn serious at any moment and bring up some report of Malcolm failing to do some task or acting in some fashion that required the Captain's intervention, but when that moment didn't come, he began to chastize himself for his overblown sense of self-importance. Without Trip for company, eating alone with T'Pol probably hadn't presented much of a prospect for the Captain, so he invited Malcolm to join them to fill the silences.

When a decent interval had passed after dessert, Malcolm made his excuses, saying he was tired and thought it best if he went to bed.

After Malcolm left, Archer went to the comm panel. "Archer to Tucker."

"Go ahead."

"I hope you had enough time, Trip. Malcolm's on his way."

"Plenty," Trip answered. "Thanks, Cap'n. I owe you one."

"Trip you owe me so many times over, I've lost count." Archer turned off the comm smiling and found T'Pol looking, for her, rather disgusted by the whole business. Archer restrained a sigh. "I can tell by your expression you don't approve of any of this."

"I simply do not see the point of invading another person's privacy in this manner."

"The point is that friends do things for each other, even when a little invasion is necessary."

*~*~*~*~*

Malcolm approached his quarters far calmer than he had left them. Whether that was from any real assurance that nothing was amiss or feeling sleepy from eating such a large meal he wasn't certain. He decided he would do some reading and get some sleep and stop worrying that conspiracies were afoot aimed at him.

He walked into his quarters and stopped cold.

Trip, Hoshi and Travis were standing in the middle of the room, looking at him somewhat nervously. Around them, the formerly bare walls were covered with pictures and decorations.

A large cloth pennant hung on the wall near the bathroom, with a delicately painted drawing of a volcano and Japanese letters gracefully inscribed down the side. Opposite the banner, on the wall next to his bed was a gleaming photograph of the Pleidies star cluster.

Malcolm turned and saw two frames hanging on the large wall, one containing a print of a large city on an unfamiliar planet. The other was a painting of an old Earth sailing ship, the full-rigged sails spread out, heading into a glorious sunset.

On the wall next to his desk, where he spent most of his time, was the desert in Arizona. The red rocks and soaring cliffs stood out against a sky just fading into starlight.

Even before Trip spoke, Malcolm could guess who was responsible for what. "Dr. Phlox gave me the picture of his home city on Denobula. And the Cap'n thought you'd appreciate the painting of the ship."

Travis nodded towards the stars. "When I got to earth, the only thing in the sky that didn't look completely different was the Pliedes. Whenever I got homesick I'd look at them."

"And in case you couldn't guess," Hoshi said with a smile, "I had the banner but I wasn't using it. It's Mt. Fuji in Japan. The inscription says, 'Home is not a place but a state'."

Malcolm nodded, his face beginning to flush bright red with embarrassment and pleasure. He looked at the picture of the desert, then at Trip expectantly.

Trip was pleased Malcolm had known immediately which picture came from him. "I told you about this place once. My brother and my dad and I went camping in Arizona for a lotta years. And, well, you know me and my damn camera," he added with a grin.

Malcolm laughed quietly. Then his gaze rested on his desk. Sitting next to the lamp was another, much smaller frame. He picked it up silently. Inside was a photo of himself and his sister Madeline that Malcolm had never seen. They were sitting on a bench, both smiling in bright sunshine. Malcolm remembered that day. Madeline had come to San Francisco to visit him, and they went to Golden Gate park. An obliging elderly man had taken the picture with her camera.

His ears were burning as he realized it hadn't even occurred to him to put up any pictures of his family elsewhere in his quarters. He couldn't imagine what the others must have thought of this.

Trip saw Malcolm staring at the photo. He looked at Hoshi, who said quickly, "I talked to Madeline last night. I told her we wanted to add some decorations to your quarters as a joke and she said she didn't think you had that picture already."

Malcolm put the frame down. There was a slight lump in his throat as he looked at his crewmates—his friends—and smiled. "Thank you. All of you. This is..." he couldn't think of anything appropriate to say.

Travis grinned, "Well, all the credit goes to Commander Tucker."

"And the blame," Hoshi chimed in.

Everyone laughed and Travis yawned, observing diplomatically, "Well, I have a very early shift tomorrow. I'm gonna turn in."

He left, Hoshi following him. She patted Malcolm on the arm as she walked by, and he smiled at her gratefully.

*~*~*~*~*

The others were gone, leaving Trip standing there, grinning at him. Once the door was closed, Malcolm gave an exasperated sigh. "Was it really necessary for you to expend this much energy on a decorating project?"

"I told you I was bored. So is everyone. It gave us something to do. Besides, I wanted to."

Malcolm bit his lip, his cheeks flushing again. "You didn't need to go through this much effort just for me," he muttered.

Trip stepped forward, closing the distance between them, his hand touching the other man's cheek tenderly. "That's my job, darlin." He smiled as the color on Malcolm's face got deeper. "So...you're not mad at me right?" he asked. Malcolm could be so hard to read sometimes.

Malcolm leaned forward and kissed him firmly. "I'm just not accustomed to this kind of attention."

His thumb stroking Malcolm's cheek, Trip smiled. "Well you'd better start getting used to it."

A mischievous look came into his eye and he reached for the zipper at the front of Trip's uniform. "Still, I should express my gratitude," he whispered.

Trip's eyes closed as Malcolm's hand slipped inside his jumpsuit and went directly to a very sensitive spot. For a minute he couldn't speak. Finally he managed to gasp out, "Well, if you feel that strongly about it..."

Malcolm pulled his hand away, making Trip whimper slightly. Quickly, he stripped the engineer of his clothing and then pushed him gently onto the bed. For a moment he simply looked at the naked form lying there before him.

Trip lay still, which was tough as the last thing he wanted right now was to wait. But as happened so many times, the intensity in Malcolm's face held him entranced. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd realized he was just staring endlessly into his lover's face, either awake or asleep, trying to figure him out. Malcolm was so guarded, it was so hard to get to know him, every tiny piece of knowledge felt like a victory. Something about Malcolm's expression when they were alone, the way all those things he usually hid came to the surface, kept him mesmerized. The thought that no one else on board the ship had ever seen Malcolm like this, or knew him quite so well, made him shiver.

Without a word, Malcolm dropped to his knees. His palms flattened against the other man's hips, holding him down as his mouth surrounded Trip's erection. Even knowing what was about to happen, Trip couldn't keep from twitching from the feeling of Malcolm's tongue touching him. His hands gripped the sheets, desperately trying not to thrust his hips and risk choking Malcolm. But it was difficult not to. Malcolm knew him so well, knew exactly how fast to go and what to do to make him insane. Within a minute, Trip's hands had tangled in his lover's hair, and he was begging under his breath for mercy.

Malcolm stroked and sucked expertly, feeling a smug pride when Trip exploded inside his mouth, groaning with pleasure. Finally he let go, crawling up onto the bed next to Trip, hands idly stroking the sweaty skin of his chest.

Trip wrapped a hand around Malcolm's neck and pulled him down for a hard, deep kiss. When he let go, he grinned into the armory officer's gray-blue eyes. "That was completely worth it."

"Well I'm glad you feel justly compensated for all your hard work," Malcolm couldn't help laughing. He leaned down and nuzzled Trip's neck, whispering in his ear. "But I notice we still have several hours before tomorrow's shift starts. And since you went through so much effort to make my quarters a more pleasant place to spend time, I have no intention of letting you leave."

He punctuated the statement by biting Trip's ear gently. The sensation shot through Trip like lightning and he could dimly feel another wave of arousal start. Turning on his side, he started to pull Malcolm's clothes off. "There's one more touch needed to finish the job." When Malcolm was lying naked underneath him, Trip propped himself up on both arms so that he could stare down into the other man's eyes. "As for not letting me leave, where else would I rather be?"


End file.
